Diocese of Portsmouth
The Church of England

In this section

Resources for Treasurers

Diocesan advice and support

Assistance with parish money matters is offered by Chris Parker, our Stewardship Adviser, whose role involves assisting parishes with virtually any matter relating to finance, the preparation of annual accounts, gift aid and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, grants, fundraising and general help to parish treasurers, gift aid officers, regular giving officers and stewardship promoters.

Bank account

If you are looking to make a payment to Portsmouth Diocesan Board of Finance, either as a parish or a private individual, and you need details of our bank account, please email us via this link and we'll send you the details.

Parish Share Review Group

In November 2024, our Diocesan Synod agreed with the recommendations of our Parish Share Review Group about how to calculate parish share payments for each parish. You can read their report here. Among the recommendations is one that suggests any parish that finds its parish share unaffordable should be able to have constructive dialogue with the Diocesan Secretary, alongside greater openness and transparency about finances overall.

The group decided that the calculations around parish share should still be based on a measure of Average Weekly Attendance, but calculated over a three, four and then five-year rolling average, to ensure all figures are post-Covid ones. It should also be based on relative affluence, based on the average net disposable income for each parish. Synod members heard there would also be comprehensive transitional arrangements to smooth over the effects of large changes, upwards or downwards, in the amount of parish share requested from each parish from 2025 onwards.

Diocesan Synod voted to accept the proposed changes. For full details, click here.

Parochial fees

The Parochial Fees are prescribed under various pieces of legislation which include the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986, as amended by the Ecclesiastical Fees (Amendment) Measure 2011, the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 2014 and the Parochial Fees and Scheduled Matters Amending Order 2014 which are generally referred to, for ease, as the 1986 Measure as amended.

Under the legislation the fee becomes due whenever a matter prescribed in the Schedule of fees is performed, and the fee is the property of the DBF and the PCC in portions laid down by the Archbishop’s Council annually. The fee is legally payable to the DBF regardless of which minister undertook the Occasional Office and whether they are in receipt of a stipend or not.

The DBF may agree to share a portion of its fees in certain circumstances (for example, with retired clergy who conduct a service) but that portion of the fee belongs primarily to the DBF.

There are provisions for fees to be waived, either in entirety or the DBF or PCC portion, in exceptional circumstances, but if the fees are duly collected then they must be allocated in accordance with the legislation.

Documents and Links

Parish Buying

Hunting down the best value deals for your church isn’t always easy and takes time. That’s why the National Church and the dioceses set up the Parish Buying service, which makes use of the bulk buying power of the Church. There are also a range of buying guides available offering helpful tips and advice, all of which help parishes to not only save time and money, but also be better stewards in their spending.

Parish Finance

This site is provided by the Church of England’s National Stewardship & Resources team and offers over 400 pages of resources (web & pdf) to support all aspects of finance, stewardship, administration and management in the local church, as well as links to other sites and pages of interest.

Emails

We occasionally send out emails to all our diocesan Treasurers, with information and resources that are relevant to the work you do. Please contact Chris Parker if you are not receiving these emails, so that we can add you to our database.

Previous emails